Unite
For Sight is a non-profit organization
composed of students, nurses, and public
health professionals with optometrists
and ophthalmologists and works towards
empowering communities worldwide to
improve eye health and get rid of preventable
blindness. Volunteer teams work with
partner eye clinics to provide eye care
and eye health education programs in
developing countries.
Headquartered at Connecticut in America,
the volunteers from the organization
visit people at grass root level in
various countries to diagnose and provide
treatment. Those in need of surgeries
are brought to the eye clinics where
they are operated. Surgeries of patients,
who cannot afford, are funded by Unite
For Sight.
Formed
on 23 February 1905, Rotary Club of
Chicago, Illinois, USA was the world's
first service club. It was founded by
Paul P. Harris, an attorney who wished
to recapture in a professional club
the same friendly spirit he had felt
in the small towns of his youth. The
term "Rotary" derived from
the early practice of rotating meetings
among members' offices.
Since 1947, the Foundation has awarded
more than US$1.1 billion in humanitarian
and educational grants, which are initiated
and administered by local Rotary clubs
and districts and extend their support
by voluntary contributions from Rotarians
and others who share its vision of a
better world.
Today, Rotary is a worldwide organization
of business and professional leaders
that provides humanitarian service,
encourages high ethical standards in
all vocations, and helps build goodwill
and peace in the world. Approximately
1.2 million Rotarians belong to more
than 32,000 clubs in more than 200 countries
and geographical areas.
ORBIS
is a non-aligned, non-profit global
development organization working for
the mission of preserving and restoring
sight by strengthening the capacity
of local partners to prevent and treat
blindness in different parts of the
world. ORBIS is working towards imparting
quality eye care, education and treatment
to individuals in different countries.
In the mid-1970s, Dr David Paton a Houston-based
ophthalmologist and chairman of the
Baylor College of Medicine's ophthalmology
department came up with a solution for
the rising scale of curable yet untreated
eye disease in the developing world.
He put his technology and skills into
an airplane and creating a teaching
eye hospital that could go where it
was needed most.
With its first program to Panama City
to teach local doctors surgical skills
through training and lectures in 1982,
the ORBIS Flying Eye Hospital, with
its international team of doctors and
nurses, today, continues its sight-saving
work around the world.
ORBIS is a founding member of Vision
2020, a global initiative led by the
World Health Organization and the International
Agency for the Prevention of Blindness,
which aims to end avoidable blindness
by the year 2020.
Working in partnership with local health
professionals and institutions, ORBIS
works to improve the quality and accessibility
of eye care.
Combat
Blindness Foundation (CBF) was founded
in 1984 by Dr. Suresh Chandra, Professor
of Ophthalmology and Visual Science
at the University of Wisconsin –
Madison. The Foundation is run by community
leaders in Madison and Dane County who
serve as the Board of Directors as well
as renowned ophthalmologists from around
the world who serve on the Advisory
Board.
To date, most of the Combat Blindness
Foundation support has been done in
collaboration with Aravind Eye Hospital,
King George's Medical College, LV Prasad
Eye Hospital, Dr. Shroff’s Charity
Eye Hospital and Sitapur Eye Hospital
that are located in India. Combat Blindness
Foundation also supports many other
projects in India, Kenya, the Philippines,
and Vietnam.
